Fuego (CD)

Phish

Amoeba Review

06/23/2014

Already, Fuego is being hailed as the best Phish album since Billy Breathes, which is a unique distinction. When BB came out in 1996, it was the band's most concise, pop-oriented album. Short songs and hooky focus that made a lot of new fans but potentially alienated some old ones who were looking for more long-form progressive folk-reggae-jazz-rock of the kind they were used to. After BB the band generally continued in that poppier direction, still turning those concise songs into lengthy workouts on stage but the studio-Phish was, from that point on, a different animal. Fuego is unique because it's a crossover more than a throwback. It incorporates the bands mature hookiness and focus as well as the live stretching out their fans follow them around the country for. Elements of classic progressive rock are everywhere here, so it's great to see Bob Ezrin, the legendary producer of Pink Floyd's The Wall and Lou Reed's Berlin, behind the boards here, acting also as studio adviser, encouraging the band to make the record a closer representation of their live show. This record should certainly grow a large garden of new Phish fans while supplying the die hards with more fodder for live improvisation and more classics to sing along to.